Frequently asked questions
The questions visitors ask most often before signing up. If something isn't covered here, the contact page is the best way to reach the author.
Audience and fit
Who is Teacher Elf for?
Primarily classroom teachers. Most features assume a teacher with a class of students. That said, anyone can sign up: tutors, homeschool parents, and individual learners are welcome. One thing to know up front: a class currently has a single teacher, so a tutoring business with several staff sharing the same student roster isn't a natural fit today (see the collaboration question below).
Does it work for subjects other than languages?
Yes. Flashcard decks, multiple-choice quizzes, matching games, hangman, word search, anagram, fill-in-the-blank, and Live Quiz games are all subject-agnostic. They work for vocabulary, history dates, math facts, science terms, anything you can express as a question/answer pair. Two features are language-specific: the Dictation game (listen-and-type) and the AI Tutor's spoken-conversation practice. Many of the public decks and testimonials come from language teachers, but the system doesn't require your subject to be a language.
Getting started
Do students need to create accounts or share an email address?
No. Teachers create student accounts on the student's behalf, typically a username and a password the teacher manages, and no student email is required. For Live Quiz games, students don't even need that: they join from any device with a 6-digit class code and a nickname.
Can I import flashcards from Quizlet, Anki, or a spreadsheet?
Partially. Three import paths exist today:
- Anki (.apkg): direct import, including multi-deck collections.
- CSV from Teacher Elf: re-import CSV files previously exported from Teacher Elf itself.
- OCR from images: extract flashcards from a photo of a printed vocabulary list.
Direct Quizlet import is notsupported today, and generic CSV files from other apps don't work unless they match Teacher Elf's export format. If you have an existing Quizlet set you'd like to bring over, the contact page is the place to ask.
What does a typical first session look like?
Roughly five minutes from sign-up to a running quiz. After signing up as a teacher, you create a class, then either build a deck from scratch or copy one from the public deck library. From there you can assign the deck to the class or click “Live Quiz” to host a Live Quiz. Students join with the class code on their phones. Student accounts can be added later; Live Quiz works without them.
Privacy and AI
How is student data handled?
The full details are in the Privacy Policy. In short: student data is stored on Teacher Elf's servers, is not sold to third parties, and is processed by a small set of named subprocessors (Vercel, Supabase, Clerk, OpenAI, Groq, Google, and a few others, each listed in the policy with the purpose). Teachers manage student accounts directly, including passwords. See the Children's Privacy section of the policy for the school-authorized arrangement under COPPA.
What does the AI Tutor send to OpenAI?
When a student or teacher chats with the AI Tutor, the conversation is sent to OpenAI's API to generate the response. OpenAI may retain those conversations under their own data-retention terms. The Privacy Policy lists exactly what is sent and which other AI providers are involved. If your district restricts AI tools, the AI Tutor can simply be left unused. The rest of Teacher Elf doesn't depend on it.
Collaboration
Can multiple teachers share a class or a deck?
Not today. A class has a single teacher; there is no co-teaching or co-ownership of student rosters. A class can be transferred wholesale to another teacher (useful for end-of-year handoffs), but not jointly owned. Decks can be made public so other teachers can copy them into their own library, but the copy is independent. There is no shared or simultaneous editing.
Don't see your question?
Teacher Elf is built and shaped by what teachers actually ask for. Several features in the answers above (Quizlet import, multi-teacher classes, shared deck editing) aren't built today, but they are all reasonable additions when enough teachers ask. The fastest way to nudge something onto the list, or to ask anything not covered here, is via the contact page.